For the fifth time around Galder and his OLD MAN'S CHILD have spawned a new album and again I am not all that sure, if they will actually manage to step out from the shadows of genre-leaders like DIMMU BORGIR, in which, as many of you already know, Galder and drum-berzerker Nicholas Barker can be found, too.
For years now they have been putting out quality releases, if not the really outstanding, genre highlights that always received good reviews, but never brought them a breakthrough. Still "The Pagan Prosperity" and also "Ill-Natured Spiritual Invasion" at least to me are among the better albums of the genre, while the 2000 album "Revelation 666 - The Curse Of Damnation" could not hold that standard.
So what does "In Defiance Of Existence" bring us? Well, nothing groundbreakingly new, Symphonic Black Metal it is, but still in a quality that puts them right up there with the best, just if it'll be enough to actually establish them up there remains the question. Some might even say that the songs at least partially are (too) close to DIMMU BORGIR, but if you know the earlier works of OMC, then you know that they always had sounded like that.
But this material has the potential to finally lift this trio out of the shadows (while with this style they might like to stay there after all, but that is another thing), with tracks like opener "Felonies Of The Christian Art", "Sacrifice Of Vengeance" or "The Soul Receiver", where the tempo is reduced a bit at times, in favour of more intensity, acting as testimonies. Just if the fans see it the same way, only time will tell, I guess... (Online February 22, 2003)